<p>@hscompsci: regarding the huge number of “1” scores: on the FRQs every year, there’s a significant number of exams that are either completely blank, or filled with other off-task materials (poems, pictures, essays, etc.).</p>
<p>As for why that happens … there are a variety of reasons:</p>
<p>1) Students who take the test without having taken an APCS course. There’s no requirement to having taken an APCS course before taking the APCS test … and so some students go ahead and give it a shot — ignoring any information provided ahead of time like the official course description, the case study, public exams …</p>
<p>2) Students whose high school course doesn’t cover the proper material. This happens less often now, I think, with the AP Audit. But the AP Audit presumes that instructors actually teach to the material provided in the audit process. And, related to point (1), there’s no requirement that one take an AP-audited course before taking the APCS exam, so there may be some schools that mistakenly send students into the exam with the wrong preparation. (And that doesn’t even cover the weird stuff that can happen in any course … replacing an instructor mid-course with someone well-meaning but without the proper background, for example.)</p>
<p>3) Poor students. It happens.</p>